fate

Pluralfates

Formsfates, fating, fated

1. 1
   nouncountable

   What happens or will happen to a person or thing, or the outcome of a situation, seen as decided in advance and often unwelcome, such as death or ruin.

   The prisoners awaited their fate with quiet dread.

   She walked toward her fate without once looking back.

   UsageCommon verbs: await, meet, accept or seal a fate: met a grim fate, sealed their fate.

   Similardestiny, doom, lot, fortune

   Note

   Here the word leans toward ruin. The fate a person awaits, meets or is told to accept ("accept your fate") is usually death or misfortune. That darkness places it beside doom and wyrd, the native word that fate replaced in its "governing force" meaning.

2. 2
   force behind eventsnoununcountable

   A supposed force, principle, or divine will believed to determine everything that happens.

   Ancient writers often spoke of fate as a power no mortal could resist.

   He blamed fate rather than his own reckless choices.

   UsageOften with no article, almost like a name: fate brought them together. Also tempt fate, meaning take a foolish risk.

   Similardestiny

   Note

   Its natural opposite is free will. To curse "the fate which had assigned such a duty", as Emerson Hough's captain does, is to blame a power outside oneself. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • The quoted wording occurs in Emerson Hough's The Purchase Price; the narrator describes Captain Edward Carlisle cursing fate. gutenberg.org
3. 3
   destined toverbtransitive

   To set the course of events in advance so that an outcome cannot be avoided.

   From the moment the storm hit, our camping trip seemed fated to end early, and we were home by noon.

   In the novel, the hero is fated to lose everything he loves, no matter how hard he fights.

   UsageMostly as fated to + verb: they were fated to meet. The active form is much less common.

   Similardoom, condemn, destine, predestine, sentence

   Note

   The oracle fates Oedipus to kill his father. In James Al-Shamma's 2011 study of Sarah Ruhl, a soldier captures Violet, "fating her to a concentration camp." Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • An oracle foretells that Oedipus will kill his father, and the prediction comes true. gutenberg.org
   • Al-Shamma describes Violet's capture using the quoted words. en.wiktionary.org
4. 4
   embryo cellsnouncountable or uncountable

   The mature endpoint that a cell, group of cells, or region of an embryo eventually develops into, together with all the changes leading there.

   Researchers traced the fate of cells in the developing limb bud.

   Signals from neighboring tissue help determine the fate of each embryonic cell.

   Note

   Embryologists speak of a cell's fate much as the rest of us speak of a person's: where it will end up, and the road it takes to get there. That double meaning of endpoint plus route explains why developmental pathway serves as a synonym. A cell's fate is something researchers trace or that signals determine, and it can sometimes be predicted. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • The embryological meaning encompasses the endpoint and the changes leading to it. en.wiktionary.org
   • Developmental pathway is a synonym in this sense. en.wiktionary.org
   • Researchers trace cell fates. embryo.asu.edu
   • Signals can determine a cell's fate. embryo.asu.edu
   • Cell fates can be predicted; researchers explicitly describe cellular features that could 'foretell their fate'. nature.com

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